CT Congressional team to visit detained families in Texas

Staff reports

Updated
6:11 pm EDT, Friday, June 22, 2018

MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 21: A woman who idendtified herself as Jennifer sits with her son Jaydan at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center after recently crossing the U.S., Mexico border on June 21, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. Once families and individuals are released from Customs and Border Protection to continue their legal process, they are brought to the center to rest, clean up, enjoy a meal and get guidance to their next destination. Before Trump signed an executive order yesterday that the administration says halts the practice of separating families seeking asylum, more than 2,300 immigrant children had been separated from their parents in the zero-tolerance policy for border crossers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) less

MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 21: A woman who idendtified herself as Jennifer sits with her son Jaydan at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center after recently crossing the U.S., Mexico border on June 21, 2018 ... more

Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

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MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 21: A woman who idendtified herself as Jennifer sits with her son Jaydan at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center after recently crossing the U.S., Mexico border on June 21, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. Once families and individuals are released from Customs and Border Protection to continue their legal process, they are brought to the center to rest, clean up, enjoy a meal and get guidance to their next destination. Before Trump signed an executive order yesterday that the administration says halts the practice of separating families seeking asylum, more than 2,300 immigrant children had been separated from their parents in the zero-tolerance policy for border crossers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) less

MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 21: A woman who idendtified herself as Jennifer sits with her son Jaydan at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center after recently crossing the U.S., Mexico border on June 21, 2018 ... more

Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images

CT Congressional team to visit detained families in Texas

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Four members of the Connecticut delegation will be part of a Congressional team traveling to Texas on Saturday to meet with families without proper documentation who are currently being held in detention centers while the United States processes their immigration claims.

U.S. Reps. Jim Himes, Elizabeth Esty, Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney will be among the more than 20 other members of Congress making the trip.

The group will speak to children and parents who were previously separated due to the Trump Administration’s family separation zero tolerance policy. Under President Donald Trump’s June 20 Executive Order, families will now be held indefinitely in detention centers.

They are expected to visit the Border Patrol Station and processing center in McAllen, Texas, as well as the Port Isabel ICE Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, which is along the border with Mexico.

On Thursday, the House voted down a conservative-leaning immigration bill and postponed voting on a more moderate bill to next week — all within 24 hours of Trump’s executive curveball on immigration reform.

The president signed an executive order Wednesday to end child-family separation at the border under his “zero-tolerance” policy, but Connecticut lawmakers said the shakeup had no impact on their opposition to the two major immigration bills in the House.

Votes on the more middle-ground legislation was suddenly delayed to next week.

Leaders on Capitol Hill said a delayed vote on the second bill is part of an effort to ensure lawmakers have clear grasp on the legislation before it enters debate, especially after GOP leaders said the bills weren’t ready to hit the House floor.

Connecticut lawmakers were never entirely approving of Trump’s order and stood by their opposition to the two bills, saying the administration needs to go one step further and reunite more than 2,300 immigrant families that were split over the past few weeks.

“As more stories come to light about the treatment of families along our nation’s border, it is apparent now more than ever that we must hold this administration accountable for its inhumane policies against people w/out documentation,” Esty said in a tweet late Thursday afternoon, hours after the House voted against one of the immigration bills.

The defeated bill, which was rejected by a vote of 193-231, would have provided temporary relief for “Dreamers” who won legal status in the United States under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The legislation would have provided funds for Trump’s border wall, a provision that turned many moderate Republicans and Democratic lawmakers away.

With one bill defeated in the House, lawmakers are focusing on a more moderate bill, pitched as a compromise piece — The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act that would allocate $25 billion to fund a border wall and provide Dreamers a pathway to citizenship.

Himes said chances the compromise bill will pass after being postponed is still “slim.”

“The extreme edges of the GOP caucus will probably balk at anything that affords what they view as overly generous protections for DREAMers,” Patrick Malone, a spokesman for Himes, said.

DeLauro said she wouldn’t support either pieces of legislation, instead calling for legislation that would reunite separated immigrant families at the southern border.

“This is unacceptable — children must be reunited with their parents immediately,” she said.